Zoom! the documentary keeps rolling on and makes it into it’s 3rd festival, this time the 2014 Phoenix Film Festival.
In 1959, Catalina High Schoolers Burt Schneider and Ray Lindstrom attended their school dance to be blown away by classmate Jack Wallace’s performance. This documentary chronicles how that moment inspired the two, with new friends along the way, to build the record label Zoom Records in Tucson, Arizona.
Dan Kruse of Tucson directed the film. I met Dan at the University of Arizona where he was taking a film course. He walked through my office door, we started chatting about film, and soon found we had way too much in common including our extensive production experience, percussion and drumming. He told me about his project, I volunteered to shoot it and off we went.
Zoom! the documentary was my first project shot on a DSLR, a Canon 7D that I had actually purchased for a rather large still photo job. I learned a lot on that shoot, particularly the importance of getting the look you want in-camera. The 7D’s 8 bit signal leaves little headroom for image manipulation in post, but as Canon likes to say, “it’s an 8 bit image file, but it’s the right 8 bits.” With that in mind, you need to find just the right picture profile that takes full advantage of the sensor. I liken it to exposing reversal film; not a lot of wiggle room, but when it’s exposed correctly the image is gorgeous. So test, test, test…
…and check out the festival, and our little story.
Bob Demers 